Janice Hartman: Inside the mysterious death of ‘Lady in the Box’ who went missing days after her divorce

TRENTON, NEW JERSEY: Janice Hartman disappeared, seemingly without a trace, a few years into her first marriage, leaving her family to wonder for decades what had happened to her. In the 2000s, John Smith, Hartman's husband, was finally charged with and found guilty of her murder - decades after her disappearance.

NBC Dateline's true-crime show 'Chameleon' that has covered the murder case premiered on Friday, April 26, and was streamed on Peacock and Hulu the following day. Let's explore what happened to Hartman.

Janice Hartman was John Smith's first wife

Janice Elaine "Jan" Hartman was born on March 2, 1951. She was raised in Ohio, and supposedly started earning a living as a go-go dancer after graduating from high school.

She married an engineer, John Smith, on June 30, 1970. Eventually, an unstable relationship developed into an abusive marriage. Hartman's family and friends claim that during the brief time they were together, Smith physically and psychologically abused his wife.

Hartman moved back to her hometown of Doylesville, Ohio, in 1974 after leaving Smith. Her divorce was granted by a court on November 14, 1974. Hartman vanished a few days later, leading her family to believe the worst.

Her car, clothes, and personal belongings were all left behind. Hartman was last seen, on November 19, 1974, and Smith called the police to report Hartman missing two days later.

What went wrong in Janice Hartman's life?

John Smith emerged as the main suspect in Hartman's disappearance which ultimately turned out to be her murder, only after his second wife, Betty Fran Gladden-Smith, "vanished" without a trace in 1991, The Sun reported.

But there were numerous indications that he had either killed Hartman or, at the absolute least, played a part in her disappearance.

Only a few months after Hartman's disappearance, Smith's grandfather and brother both recalled seeing a small, almost makeshift box at Smith's house.

Even Michael, Smith's brother, who lived with Smith in 1979, recalled seeing a box at Smith's house that contained some of Hartman's possessions and a heap of mutilated skeletal remains.

Michael and Smith's grandfather never reported what they had found to the authorities or went to the police. Smith moved the coffin and dumped it on the side of the road after his brother and grandfather had found the remains.

Hartman's body was discovered in a makeshift casket in an Indiana field on March 22, 1980.

She was never identified, and her discovery was dubbed "Lady in the Box" by the police. The remains were buried by the authorities, but in 2000, they were dug up again for DNA analysis.

On April 24, 2000, the remains were recognized as Hartman's. Later, investigators discovered that Hartman's body had first been kept in the improvised casket in their previous residence before Smith had moved it to a gas station owned by his grandfather.

John Smith is still behind bars

John Smith was detained on suspicion of killing Hartman on October 3, 2000, in Escondido, California. Police also desired to speak with him in connection with the disappearance of his second wife, Betty Fran Gladden-Smith.

Smith had moved out of New Jersey and married again, this time on the West Coast. Subsequently, Smith's third wife filed for divorce and provided testimony during one of his murder trials, The Sun further reported.

Michael, Smith's brother, had admitted to the police earlier of discovering skeletal remains at Smith's house decades earlier.

Smith was found guilty of Hartman's murder in July 2001 and given a prison term ranging from 15 years to life. In spite of the fact that Gladden-Smith's body was never discovered by authorities, he was also charged with her murder in 2019.

Smith was moved from his prison in Ohio to the Mercer County Jail in New Jersey, where he was briefly detained. In 2022, the court dismissed the case even though it had gone to trial.

Smith was sent back to Marion Correctional Institution in Marion, Ohio, at the beginning of 2023 to finish out his sentence for killing his first wife.

Smith's parole eligibility will reappear in 2029. At the time of his release, if parole is approved, he will be 78 years old.